Thousands suffer botched operations

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Official figures reveal that surgical mistakes have affected thousands of patients in Scotland

More than 5,500 “botched” operations have been carried out in hospitals over the past five years, including 3,000 cases where patients had organs accidentally cut or punctured during surgery, Scottish government figures show.

The kind of mistakes include the failure of sterile precautions in surgery but could also include “foreign bodies” being accidentally left in the body during surgery and an “inappropriate” operation being carried out.

Of the 3,106 cases where organs were accidentally cut or punctured, the highest total was in Lothian, with 703 cases.